(49) “O you who believe, when you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, you have no waiting period to count concerning them. So provide for them and release them graciously.”

Allah Most High informs the believers that if they marry believing women and then divorce them before touching them, those women have no waiting period that their husbands may require of them (1). In this situation, He commands the husbands to provide for them (2) with some worldly provision to console them for the separation, and to part from them graciously, without quarreling, insulting one another, making demands, or anything else of that nature.

This verse is cited as evidence that divorce can occur only after marriage. If a man divorces a woman before marrying her, or makes her divorce conditional upon his marrying her, it does not take effect. This is based on His words, “when you marry believing women and then divorce them”: He placed divorce after marriage, indicating that before marriage there is no basis for it.

If divorce—which entails complete separation and complete prohibition—does not take effect before marriage, then it is even more fitting that the lesser prohibition entailed by zihār (likening one’s wife to a permanently unmarriageable relative), īlā (an oath of sexual abstinence), and the like should not take effect before marriage. This is the stronger of the two scholarly opinions.

The verse also indicates that divorce is permissible, for Allah speaks of believers divorcing without blaming or rebuking them, while opening the verse by addressing the believers.

It also indicates that divorce is permissible before touching, as He says in the other verse: “There is no blame upon you if you divorce women before you have touched them.”

It further indicates that a woman divorced before consummation has no waiting period. As soon as she is divorced, she may marry, provided there is no impediment. It also indicates that she must observe the waiting period after consummation.

Do “consummation” and “touching” refer to intercourse—as is unanimously agreed—or do they also include private seclusion, even if intercourse does not occur, as the Rightly Guided Caliphs ruled? The latter is correct. Thus, if a man goes in to his wife and is alone with her, she must observe the waiting period whether or not he has intercourse with her.

The verse also indicates that a woman divorced before touching is to be given a gift according to the means of the wealthy and the means of the poor. This applies, however, when no dower has been stipulated for her. If a dower has been stipulated, then when he divorces her before consummation, the dower is halved, and that suffices in place of the gift. It also indicates that anyone who separates from his wife, whether before or after consummation, should part from her graciously, with each speaking well of the other.

The separation should not be ungracious, for each spouse’s disparagement of the other entails a great deal of harm.

The verse also indicates that the waiting period is a right belonging to the husband, based on His words, “you have no waiting period to count concerning them.” The implied meaning is that if he divorces her after touching her, he has the right to require her to observe a waiting period. [It also indicates that a woman whose marriage ends through her husband’s death must observe a waiting period in all cases, based on His words, “and then divorce them,” to the end of the verse.] (3) ⦗669⦘

It further indicates that, among wives separated from their husbands through death or during their husbands’ lifetimes, all except a woman divorced before consummation must observe the waiting period.